A gift.

-

Last Thursday (March 26th - I think) brought some sad news. One of the sweetest women I know took ill and went to the hospital. I think she was in her late eighties. Still so vibrant, sharp and oh, so sweet. Always so kind to my daughter and I when we went to church.

Several months ago, I had a brainstorm. (yes, it hurt - a little.) I had been trying to think of a way to participate in the Professional Photographers of America's Operation Smile fund raising. Since I am a corporate photographer and do not run my own shop, I just didn't see a way. But, it had been several years since my church had a pictorial directory done, I thought, aha!
So, I approached the vestry with my idea, they would get the portraits of everyone, and those who wanted to help me raise funds to PPA Operation Smile would get prints of their portrait session.
On February 8, my assistant (my husband, Bryan) and I started this endeavor. I photographed this lovely lady and her husband. Their portrait turned out beautiful. I was so pleased to share it with them but a little disappointed that they did not want to participate in the outreach. We ended up making portraits for nearly 75% of the church family - and a great majority of those wanted to participate.

March 31 I received word that she had passed on. I immediately thought that the portrait I made of her and her husband was the last one made of them together. And it did not belong to me. It belonged to her family.
On Wednesday night, I printed up a 11 x 14 as a gift to her husband. He was so grateful.
Her gift to me and my daughter was love. My gift was one of paper and ink.

Martha, you will be missed.

Comments

Joe Kabanek said…
That's absolutely beautiful, Dawn. Very inspiring.

Joe Kabanek
April 30, 2009 at 9:52 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OPINION!!! 8 red Flags... bells clanging: Buyer beware...

-
Image
If you don't know me, ask anyone. I am as honest as the day is long. My honesty is something that has actually hurt my career: I was not "correct" enough to "gain favor." I call 'em as I see 'em. So, this is the story of my family's experience with a local company and my opinion of their customer service. This has been a tough year for my husband and I. We had been taking care of his mother for about 18 months when she passed away. My mother in law and I have had an always touchy relationship and she had a really hard life. We were happy and blessed to have been able to take care of her when she needed it. She never wanted to "sell or rent" her house after she moved in with us. So, there it sat, empty. She paid the higher insurance rates, and we moved the majority of her things here to my home.  After she passed away, we knew that we needed to liquidate the majority of her belongings. My husband did not have the appetite to go through h...
Read more

A touchy subject...

-
Image
I've been marketing and marketing and marketing. Not really actively yet, but thinking, brainstorming and such. Trying to get the creative juices flowing and bouncing ideas off my silent partner, my hubby. He and I always come back to the idea that good enough is good enough for most people. They wouldn't want to pay for a CERTIFIED professional photographer to come and deliver HIGH END images of what ever they need. What I see is a need to educate. Educate our clients and end users on why we demand the prices we do. I hear from so many clients: "Ohhh, that's a little pricey...I'll just get my Aunt Edna to shoot the photos for me. She's got the exact same camera as you!" At this point I realize that I will not be getting the gig and that they will be happy with "good enough". So many of my colleagues say that we should not criticize other photographers (non-professionals) work. Why not? As professionals - or people who aspire to be - shouldn'...
Read more

Get bees... it'll be easy... it'll be cheap... The real costs...

-
Image
Get bees... ... you can capture a swarm, but that needs drawn comb... so unless you already have bees... no. Today's cost? $225.00 - 300.00 for a NUC of bees. Basically a starter colony. 5 frames, drawn and filled with resources or brood. (I paid 175.00 back in 2020. I got a NUC bursting with bees. In fact, this new-beekeeper didn't know better and they swarmed within a month, even though they were in a bigger box and had plenty of room. If they want to swarm... they swarm.) The good part? If you establish a bee yard, that in itself is a swarm lure... I have captured many swarms in the trees just south of my bee yard...  You have a 10 frame deep box to house them in... great. But they will need 2-3x that before the end of summer. So, that is 20 more waxed frames, and 2 more (deep or medium or shallow) boxes (how ever you wish to extract honey from)... ~$100.00 for the boxes, 2.00 per frame. Approximately 240.00.  Sugar to feed a new colony. You have to feed them so they will d...
Read more